There
could be a scramble ahead of 2026 elections in Wisconsin after a Waukesha County Circuit
Court ruling that directs the Wisconsin Elections Commission to verify whether people registered
to vote are U.S. citizens.
Republican appointed commissioner Don Millis is here with reaction and thanks very much
for being here.
My pleasure.
So the judges ruling requires election officials to verify citizenship by matching voter registrations
to state DOT files with a spring primary coming up in February.
How reasonable is that timeline?
Well, I think it's going to be a challenge if that's the way the order sticks.
We know that there's going to be another hearing on October 31st and it's always possible
that there could be modifications.
Certainly the commission does have a role in making sure that people who are on the
list are eligible to vote and we work with local clerks, 1850 local clerks to make sure
that happens.
So we will see what the order ends up being and we will do our best to comply at least
that's how I think we should be acting.
So you do think it's reasonable to prevent non-citizens from being on the voter rolls
or to remove them?
Well, the commission has a role in doing that a year ago.
There was a concern about a couple of Department of Transportation types of licenses that were
handed or provided to visa holders and green card holders.
There was a concern that those identification cards would be used for registration and or
voting.
And so we issued a directive to all the clerks in the state to be on the lookout for those
to see if someone presents that, indicate that that's a light, great likelihood that
that person is not a citizen, not impossible, it could be a citizen, and we provided instructions
on how to deal with that.
So we've taken that on that task before and I think we'll take it on again.
Just a mention, the degree and how widespread we're required to act.
As to that issue of non-citizens holding IDs, state IDs, that otherwise could be used as
part of the voter ID law to vote, your commission told us when we did some reporting on this,
that there were only three non-citizens that have been referred for prosecution since 2019
in that way.
Is this a solution in search of a problem then?
Well, I don't doubt that the issue of non-citizens voting is a very minor one that doesn't happen
very often, but part of our role is to make sure that there's confidence in the elections.
I know I've told you in the past that despite the fact that we have some of the best technology
available, we can assure that our elections are fair and the results are valid, but these
things come up and part of our role is to instill confidence.
We have in the past, like last year when we sent that circular out, we were concerned
that there was a perception that there's going to be widespread use of those IDs, regardless
of whether there was widespread use, it was important that we instill confidence.
Back in 2022, there were a couple of examples of improper requests for absentee ballots.
Now those are handled properly, those ballots were never issued, but because the public
perception, we acted and we took steps to make sure that if that happened on a widespread
basis, there'd be a way of making sure that those ballots wouldn't be issued or that
people, if they were not issued, there'd be a way of remedying that.
Again, just because something, in fact, doesn't happen on a widespread basis, doesn't mean
that it's not important for us to address the perception to instill public confidence
in the validity of our elections.
As you mentioned, the Wisconsin Department of Justice has appealed this Waukesha County
Circuit Court ruling, and while that's under consideration, the Waukesha judge put on hold
his ruling that local clerks cannot register new voters without proof of citizenship, but
how would citizenship be proved?
Right.
Well, I didn't have a huge problem with much of the decision.
That was one aspect of the decision.
I don't think it's a good look to tell people you can't register, especially if we have
an opportunity to later verify.
I think that it is a challenge because some of our identifications that are provided
to citizens are also provided to non-citizens, so that is a challenge.
I think it is more incumbent on the authorities, the Department of Transportation, the Elections
Commission, working with local clerks to try to identify people who might not be citizens
or are in fact not citizens and take remedial action.
But when you register to vote, you have to check a box saying that you are a citizen
under penalty of law.
Is that not good enough, then?
I think that for 99.99% of the registrants, that is good enough.
But there is, again, a perception that this could happen, and again, we shouldn't take
it lightly, that it doesn't happen.
We have examples of double voting, we make referrals to district attorneys, because things
like that do happen, it's not widespread, but it's important to instill confidence and
take action appropriately.
All right.
We leave it there.
Commissioner Don Miller.
Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Have a good weekend.
Thank you.
That was excellent.
Thank you.
I have a problem.
My eyes wandering, and I look at these things, and I'm saying I'm looking up like this and
you were great.
You were fine.
It's just like...
I had to...
Yeah.
It didn't look like that.
Well, I have to remember that I use an iPad, and so right here is my camera, and you're
over here.
So I have to...
Look, it's not that.
Yeah.
No, I think it looked fine.
It looks just like how you might talk to somebody in real life where you're using your
hands or whatever.
Yeah.
That was great.
Thank you.
Okay.
Well, thank you very much.
Have a good show.
Thanks.
Have a good weekend.